Happy update, questions, answers, & doing kickstarters...

Hope you are having a fantastic fall. Good news. I just packed ALL the rootbeer orders. U.S. orders went out yesterday morning. All the international rootbeers are packed up but won't leave the nest until wednesday.

All that is left are a few stragglers that paid outside the kickstarter system, and the customs and paintings which should be finished up within the next week here.

This Friday I will have the first release of Terry King Bootlegger, a caped monkey who wants all of everything to himself alone in his castle. gravytoys.com This morning sometime Episode IV of The Suns Of Brodarr will launch too. Just hunt for that one. It's free and only slightly silly.

Now that I have almost everything under my belt, I thought I would take a little moment to reflect. Feel free to pass any of this on to friends or folks you may know that want to do a kickstarter.

I would definitely do this again in a heartbeat. And I think I will do another kickstarter for Drizzz and friends in the near future. Whether it's a total fail or success (I would put this one in the win column) everything in life is a chance to learn. I learneded good. This has been a great way to expand my reach. I met so many new people thru kickstarter. And most of all it allowed me to get not just one new figure but a whole new load of combinations out there into the universe.

I do have quite a bit of room for improvement. After seeing and reading 100's of other Kickstarters offering high fives for a $10 pledge or a free sticker for $20 ( I may be slightly, really just slightly exaggerating ), I think I went too far in the other direction, shooting myself in the foot with free shipping and way too many goodies for the dollar amount. Somehow, even though I ship loads of goodies, I had greatly underestimated shipping costs as well as the unit prices of all the goods offered in the rewards. So the key may be finding the right balance between offering something up that feels like a joke, and giving too much away.

Time is always more liquid than I think. In the big scheme of things running a couple months behind isn't too bad. I should have just built in a few extra months though just to be on the safe side.

Ok... a few questions for you in the room for improvement department. The print. In my mind this was a good one, But it was way too big, and a contributing factor in shipping costs. Did you guys like the silk screen print? thinking of still doing one, just way smaller and more manageable. Unless nobody really cared, in which case I would skip it all together as it's a ton turd of work.

Zine/comic same exact question only size wasn't really an issue. The zine actually took me longer than anything else, and in the end, scrapped the whole first one I was working on to make something way more simple. Did you guys enjoy it?

Add-ons. Will probably do this again... but will try to figure out a better balance between offering up too many different rewards. I think the add-ons confused a lot of people (including myself), but asking for too high a goal and not making it would be worse I thinks.

Alrighty. Feel free to answer or comment below about this or anything I didn't cover.

The print was amazing, but I definitely wouldn't be disappointed with a much smaller one. The stickers were also great, but if you offered just one with a sick die cut, it would also be cool. Overall, it was an amazing package!

I was surprised by the size and awesome quality of the print, I think it was the metallic silver that got me. I was really in it for the toys, the print was just a bonus, but when I saw the print in-person, I was blown away! A smaller size is cool with me. All that being said, I think the toys are still the main draw.

As for the zine, I really enjoyed reading it and adding it to my collection of zines/magazines/comics. I love toys that have a story, makes me feel like a kid again. If it’s something that holds up sending rewards out, I wouldn't mind picking these up on the Gravy Toys website.

Rewards were very generous. That was the whole reason I even pledged. The DX level was a crazy good deal, I just couldn’t pass it up. It was also my first purchase of Bwana Spoons toys and since then I’ve expanded my Suns of Brodarr gang and even started a pod of Killers. So, while the rewards were probably TOO good, you definitely earned at least one new fan/collector.

In summary, for me it’s all about the toys! The other stuff could disappear from the Kickstarter and I’d still be happy. However, having the whole package in-hand was just awesome. I don’t mind waiting for awesomeness, and I don’t mind paying for it either.

Unexpectedly, the print was one of my favorite parts. The imagine is great and the silver was amazing. I loved the size but I think you could charge a bit more and make that a stand alone reward.
I collect zines and this one was up there with one of the best but it was probably not necessary based on the time it sounds like it took. The zine was great but if it delayed the rest of the process then it probably isn't mandatory.
The add-ons are a great option but I think I was a little confused by them and then didn't end up getting it because I dropped the ball.
Again, great job with this one. Good luck finding the balance between time, cost, and rewards! Looking forward to the next one!